"You shouldn't have a favorite murder," writes Emma Berquist.
In an essay for the new Gawker, Berquist discusses her own violent attack— and criticizes our obsession with true crime. Chirpy crime podcasters can spin violence into entertainment, and the splashy stories that get traction tend to have rich white women as victims. Berquist argues this coverage intensifies
I think, somewhat horrifyingly, of what the internet sleuths would find on my own Instagram if I hadn't survived my attack. Would my story have been the kind that was featured on a podcast, two bantering hosts dissecting my life and my book choices in between plugging ads for affordable furniture? I think I would rather get stabbed again than have TikTok users descend like vultures on my social media, zooming in on pictures of my messy bedroom to analyze the tedious minutia of my deeply average life. Looking for warning signs, trying to find a way to convince yourself you'd survive is normal, a natural response to the paranoia and anxiety these stories inspire.
Emma Berquist, Gawker
The article comes weeks after Gabby Petito's disappearance and murder led frenzied internet sleuths to obsessively investigate her death— eventually leading to intense media coverage. As the media hype subsided, and reports compared the Gabby Petito coverage to the (lack of) coverage of missing Indigenous women (710 disappeared in Wyoming in the past decade).
